To thrift-store aficionados, Oviedo's HOPE Helps has long offered a bargain-hunters' paradise. This week, paradise gets a makeover.

Today, the nonprofit community-aid organization celebrates the grand opening of its new thrift "boutique" and retail shop -- the HOPE Chest. From 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., there will be special sales, refreshments, prizes and family-oriented festivities at the new location, 1802 W. Broadway St. in Oviedo.

But if you miss today's opening, not to worry. Another great thing about the operation is that sales happen at the drop of a secondhand designer-made hat. An Easter sale is a given.

The shop features new and gently used furniture; men's, women's, teens' and children's clothing; shoes; electronics; housewares; exercise equipment; musical instruments; toys and games and more. HOPE is also expanding the boutique section to include business suits, vintage jewelry, hats and shoes.

Volunteers have been working for weeks to clean, paint, stock and arrange the new store,...

They're the Guys With Ties, not to be confused with Guys Who Just Happen To Be Wearing Ties.

No, these Guys are all about ties to worthy causes. And they throw a heck of a party in the process.

Saturday night, for instance, the Guys are hosting their annual Bow Ties & High Heels event -- a casino-nightclub-style fundraiser benefiting the Women's Residential Counseling Center in Orlando. The 126-bed transitional-living program helps single women and women with children, many of who are escaping domestic violence, exploitation and homelessness.

In short: fun night, somber cause, good Guys.

The group came together in 2005, when eight young professionals formed a 501-c-3 nonprofit to raise money for local charities that could use the help.

On Saturday, their big event runs from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. at the Stardust Lounge, 431 E. Central Blvd. in Orlando (32801). Tickets are $30, available online, and include "select" complimentary drinks from 7 to 9 p.m.

Most nonprofit organization host annual galas, sell T-shirts or hold fun runs and group walks to raise money for their mission. Not Dave's House.

The charity that builds small group homes where people with serious mental illness can live on their own -- with a little guidance -- answers one of the greatest needs in our community. But even with seven homes now open, demand dramatically outpaces supply.

So on Saturday (Feb. 28), the group is hosting a fundraising breakfast seminar featuring Disney veteran and inspirational speaker Lee Cockerell. His subject: how to be a better leader in all aspects of your life, whether you run a Fortune 500 company or teach kindergartners.

The event takes place at the Renaissance Orlando at SeaWorld, 6677 Sea Harbor Dr. Registration starts at 8 a.m., breakfast and networking begin at 8:30, and the seminar runs from 9 to 11 a.m.

Tickets are $40 at the event, with discounts for students, nonprofit staff...

BARCELONA, SPAIN - FEBRUARY 24: Whatsapp CEo Jan Koum during a Keynote conference as part of the first day of the Mobile World Congress 2013 at the Fira Gran Via complex on February 24, 2014 in Barcelona, Spain. The annual Mobile World Congress hosts some of the world's largest communication...

BARCELONA, SPAIN - FEBRUARY 24: Whatsapp CEo Jan Koum during a Keynote conference as part of the first day of the Mobile World Congress 2013 at the Fira Gran Via complex on February 24, 2014 in Barcelona, Spain. The annual Mobile World Congress hosts some of the world's largest communication... (David Ramos / Getty Images)

If you're the CEO of a charitable foundation or nonprofit organization, we have a little advice for you: Be very, very nice to young tech-industry entrepreneurs.

As a group, they're quickly become the biggest force in philanthropy. This week, the latest ranking of the nation's donors showed 12 tech entrepreneurs are now among the nation's 50 most generous donors -- more than any other industry, including finance.

And many of them are under 40. (Yes, kids, that qualifies them as young.)

According to The Chronicle of Philanthropy, which compiled the rankings, America’s 50 most generous donors increased their giving by 27.5 percent last year. The surge was powered in large part by a $1.5-billion gift from Bill and Melinda Gates and what the Chronicle called a "stunning" rise in the number of young tech entrepreneurs -- three of whom gave more than $500 million apiece.

That's some serious coin.

The youngsters include Jan Koum, 38, founder of the messaging company WhatsApp, who donated $556...

The 2014 Baskets of Love event brought cheer to 75 homeless women and their children.

You might think that contenders for the Worst Valentine's Day Ever title would find it hard to top spending Feb. 14 in a homeless shelter.

But thanks to a small group of women who joined forces a decade ago, this year as many as 200 residents of Orlando shelters will be greeted with presents, money and compassion – if organizers can win enough public support.

The women behind the project are mothers, corporate executives, investment bankers, real-estate agents. More importantly, they're women who wanted to give back to the community.

So in 2005, they opened a nonprofit called Space to Grow with a mission of engaging others to help nonprofits, particularly those that served women and children. One of the group's first projects was Baskets of Love, which brought toiletries, laundry supplies, rolls of coins for commercial washers, food and raffle prizes to the residents of the Women's Residential Counseling Center in Orlando. A shelter for single women and single mothers with children,...

Case in point: Bill Brooks, the 55-year-old mayor of Belle Isle, who plans to run around in public in his underwear.

And he hopes you'll join him.

Brooks is the hard-working organizer of Cupid's Undie Run, being held this Saturday on the streets of downtown Orlando -- a half-naked fund-raising event for the Children's Tumor Foundation. His daughter, 14-year-old Lilly Ann, is battling an often-disabling condition called neurofibromatosis. Aggressive tumors grow along her neck and chest, and scoliosis has twisted and bent her spine beyond 90 degrees.

Other kids with NF, which affects about 1 in every 3,500 children, will develop disfigurement, deafness, blindness, learning disabilities, bone deformities and -- in about 10 percent of cases -- cancer.

So come this weekend, Brooks will put on his boxers, top hat and running shoes and take to the streets to raise money in the "1-mile-ish" Undie Run, started five years ago in...